I'm sure we've all imagined visiting PonyVille and getting to meet our favorite ponies. But what would really happen if bronies got the chance to visit Equestria? Would it really be so great, or would it be a disaster?

Princess Celestia knew how her kingdom worked. The Unicorns used magic. Pegasi flew in the sky and handled the weather. And Earth ponies... Earth ponies... Huh, maybe Celestia didn't know everything about her ponies. That was about to change.

The morning after Nightmare Night, Twilight realizes that she has inadvertently hurt Princess Luna. Twilight wants only to make amends, and Luna wants only to be understood. The two have a conversation.

Princess Celestia is high and mighty in a lot of ways, motherly and mentor-like in more. But her proteges have almost always been unicorns, with one or two pegasi, and not one earth pony in all of her over 1000 years of life. When Applejack, staying true to her Element of Honesty, even with the Princess, bluntly states that Princess Celestia understands little of what it's like to be an earth pony, the princess realizes the flaw in her understanding of her subjects. Turning to a newly reformed old friend, Celestia begs to be an earth pony for a day. What happens, nopony could have guessed.

The only problem I saw so far was the shame that Celestia showed at not having many earth pony guards/servants in her castle. The pegasi are traditionally the ones who serve as the fighting/protecting force. It's in their militaristic culture and in their blood. They train for it it much more seriously than the other races, so it's natural that they would make up the bulk of the guards (and even the Equestrian Army, if there is such a thing). The unicorns would generate the shields and artillery fire, but you don't need nearly as many as pegasi. It's not like the Princess is discriminating against earth ponies in that regard, so there really isn't a reason for her to feel ashamed.

Plus, you mean to tell me the castle never had an earth pony cooking staff before Shining Armor came along? Really? That, on the other hand, actually is something to be embarrassed about. I can just picture the castle parties dining on boring food prepared by some uptight unicorn who used very precise and sterile recipes.

Hmm... interesting story to wake up to, much better than waking up to many tyrant/NLR fics. Now while I do think that Celestia would already understand the Earth Ponies (mine is 1500+ years old and live the first 20-30 years as an Earth Pony), you do bring up the plot in a good way that doesn't demonize Celestia, which is good. I look forward to seeing how she will rectify her lack of education and how Applejack will teach the ultimate teacher. Of course it has been said that One never stops being a student for we never stop learning. I wish you luck with this.

2036040I despise tyrant Celestia. I'm not a fan of the fandom's idea of the whole NLR/Solar Empire crap for several reasons which I could probably rant about for a while so I'll keep it to myself for now. Part of the reason I AM writing this story is because of the concept that one never stops learning, not even after over 1000 years (I see Celestia and Luna as having been in their 20s/possibly early 30s when Luna was banished and only semi-immortal because of the power of the Elements of Harmony, which have now chosen different hosts, so they are now living out the rest of their lives. Alicorns are just rare, overpowerd winged unicorns that are generally born in the royal family as opposed to immortal. For example, Cadence is not immortal.) She's not my spirit pony, but I do relate in a lot of ways to Celestia, so I'm hoping I can get across my intent in this story.

2036097It makes me very happy to see the first words being "I despise tyrant Celestia" that made my day, that and not liking the idea of the NLR/SE thing (and if you wish to rant, just send me a PM). You seem to have an interesting concept with the Alicorns, apart from the stories that have "Celestia" and "Luna" being titles passed down I haven't seen one yet that has the Alicorns being truly mortals. I simply follow something I've read in a fic, "Ponies think I am immortals simply because I have yet to die."

I truly look forward to the next chapter and I would like to invite you to join the "Protect Celestia" group here on FiMFiction.

This story. Yes! I too have wondered about the little hype earth ponies receive. I mean, all of Equestria would starve without them. They are important even if they are born without the flashy horns or wings. And I would like to see how AJ teaches Celestia about earth pony magic. I'm sure Pinkie will be there in some form although I'm wondering now if there are other earth ponies like Pinkie--heavens forbid! lol

I hope there are more chapters. And perhaps you mention not all earth ponies are farmers and bakers. Miss Cheerilee is a good example, just as not all pegasi are weather ponies and not all unicorns have to bother with magic.

I think this is an interesting premise, Celestia wanting to learn more about the Earth ponies. She's definitely shown some interest in that direction in canon - you mention the Running of the Leaves, for example. It seems like a very fun concept to explore.

I find myself kind of thrown out of the story by Applejack's voice, though. Her accent feels a bit too strong to me, almost more like Granny Smith, and so I had a hard time engaging with her character. I know from experience how tough it can be to write in the voice of characters with very particular canon accents, though, and I think it's cool that you're putting effort into trying to get it right.

Also, I know this is a short piece and I'm a big fan of brevity over Lavender Unicorn Syndrome, but I felt like the interaction between Applejack and Celestia was a bit abrupt and could have done with a little more overt cues of the characters' emotions. For example I'd expect Celestia to show a little surprise at seeing Applejack show up to talk with her, since they don't have a lot of one-on-one interactions in canon. She might wonder if something was wrong with Twilight, or perhaps spend some time reflecting on how much she did (and didn't) really know about Applejack from their few interactions and the various friendship letters. Similarly, Applejack seems very comfortable slipping into the role of lecturing Celestia about Earth pony issues. You do a good job setting up that she finds the request somewhat disquieting, but I think there's some opportunity to follow through by showing that she's nervous lecturing Celestia like that, or that she might second-guess whether Celestia knew some of what she was saying and whether Applejack was wasting her time going through details the princess was well-aware of.

2049034And thank you for the feedback. AJ's accent is hard to do, since it's hard to place the "ya's" versus the "y'alls" (as a person who's lived in Texas and North Carolina her entire life I'm very familiar with southern accents and like AJ, many southerners use 'y'all' as both a singular and a plural") As for Celestia reacting to AJ visiting her, my background for that is that she knew Applejack was coming but not why. But again, thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate friendly, constructive criticism like that, it helps me grow as a writer (my true art is the theatre, as opposed to writing). Have an Applejack.

2050238 My accent is non-existent most of the time thanks to my parents having neutral accents, though anytime I visit my Texas family I come home talking like Applejack, and when I'm working I suddenly get more southern.

Writing dialects is a pain. I can imitate them perfectly if I'm speaking, but I'm not truly a writer (though I find it fun).